Sept. 30.
Events have moved with such rapidity during the last few days, and they have been fraught with such immensity, that the world has been reduced to a state of breathlessness in which, for the first time during seven days there is at last something in the nature lof a ground for hope. There was the failure fof the Chamberlain-Hitler. conversations at Godesberg, Herr Hitler's speech at the Sportspalast in Berlin, the almost simultaneous issuance of the significant Foreign Office announcement showing that Great Britain, France and Russia were united in the event of an attack on Czechoslovakia, Then came the strong appeal for peace from Pre~ sident Roosevelt, and the pronouncement that the United States could not remain oblivious of what was happening in Europe, the British instructions to the Ambassador in Rome, the feall on Count Ciano, the communications be~ tween Rome and Berlin, the second, and personal appeal by President Roosevelt to Herr Hitler, and then Mr. Chamberlain's speech in the House of Commons on Wednesday, which included first the announcement that Herr Hitler had postponed the German mobile zation for twenty-four hours, and, a ttle later in the course of the same speech, the information that Der Fuehrer had invited him. to attend yet a further conference at Munich, lat which besides Great Britain and Germany, France and Italy would be represented, If lever a journal were justified in its complete support of Mr. Chamberlain's original decision to see Herr Hitler at Berchtesgaden it is this one, Humanly speaking but for hi happy thought Europe would by now have [been at war. That has not yet happened, and leven if in the end, it does occur, which' God forbid, the very respite which has been gained, and the chances of peace which it has brought, will leave those critics of Mr. Chamberlain confounded in the very terms lof their criticism, Those Germans who cheered Mr, Chamber=, lain at both Berehfesgaden and Godesbers, did not cheer him because, he was an English, man, but because to them he was the possible bringer of peace, a peace which they desire just as much as any other people in Burope. Those members of Parliament on Wednesday, who were overcome by Mr, Chamberlain's' Jannouncement, saw yet another chance that this heavy threat of war might still be averted, and the reaction of relief which has been felt throughout the whole world bears witness to the complete detestation in which the idea of such a war is universally held, [Casting the mind back through all that hi happened during the past three months, will be remembered that at some time' or another the possibility of the whole matter being brought before a conference of the four Great European Powers was' somewhat hesitatingly mentioned. The idea seems to have been dropped, possibly because at the time no one ever dreamed that such a cons ference would be held, and now at this eleventh hour, on the initiative of Herr Hiter, but probably upon indirect inspiration through Rome it has come into being. It Would be foolish to build too greatly upon it. The dispute is at a sufficiently serious pass to justify the belief that the greatest qualities of statesmanship will be necessary to bring Jabout such an improvement in the situation as would, completely remove the threat of Mussolini, bringing to the council chamber it. And yet it may be possible that Signor
fresher mind than those who have been painting the picture, and who cannot because Jot closeness of perspective, perceive its faults, may be able to find a way out of this present impasse, It ts a dramatic picture—the leaders of the tour Great Powers, whose people are eagerly desirous of avoiding war and all that it means to them, seeking at this late hour avert a catastrophe in which they all might be but victims of elreumstances, leven though some of them be self-wrought, is as dramatic in its way as the suggestion, that the Article of the Covenant of the League of Nations, providing for the recon sideration of treaties, might at this time be invoked, is fatuous, "But the quality of the jarama is enhanced by the dangers of this Jconference at Munich, There can be question of the formulation of any further demands upon Czechoslovakia, nor even insistence upon those which its' Government has already so emphatically rejected, but there is plenty of scope for ascertaining in what way those concessions which have already been made to Germany can be into plemented in a manner calculated to give the completest satisfaction to both sides, If any new demands are put forward it is difficult to see how either Great Britain and France can possibly adhere to them. Their action with regard to the manner in* which Herr Hitler's last demands were {transmitted to Czechoslovakia must. be the clearest evidence of this, and the mission lof the Munich Conference must be now to bring the opposing nations together on the comparatively minor question of procedure. Tt must be confessed that, judging from Mr.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.